Design Need help with stylized forest lighting.

[Harloquin]

Greetings everyone,
I am currently designing for a production that has several scenes taking place in a forest. The director has asked me to create a "forest look" with gobos on a cyc to give the illusion of having hanging branches and dense foliage. At the moment I am planning on foliage breakups for the stage anyway but projecting a gobo onto a cyc seems like a tragedy waiting to happen. I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion on how to create this effect without making a cheap look? I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks

 

[Les]

I've done the exact same effect and thought the result was quite good, especially if you are going for a stylized look. They make lots of full tree gobos, and while it's true that on their own, they might seem kind of cheesy. But when you combine multiples of both positive and negative images, in a range of earthy colors (chocolate brown does well here), the result can be quite impressive. Play around with the intensity and focus of individual fixtures to create the illusion of depth, and layer a few on top of each other. I think you will be surprised.

 

[DELO72]

Yeah, what Les said. Think about the light as the negative space. Maybe dim shadows in grey for a hint of trunk-like shapes. You can also layer leaf gobos with some sharp and some softer to create a sort of depth. I'd go with very subtle colors (tints) and maybe split gels to get some fun blending on the leaves thrown out of focus.

** Hey all you "I need to immediately replace my Tungsten fixtures with LEDs" people- You can't do split gels with LEDs! ** Old School FTW!

 

[JohnD]

** Hey all you "I need to immediately replace my Tungsten fixtures with LEDs" people- You can't do split gels with LEDs! ** Old School FTW!

SOOoooooooooooooo, what if in the future you could pixel map oh say an ETC Source 4 Led, I wonder what that would look like?

 

[DELO72]

 

[Harloquin]

Thanks for your advice guys! It has given me a lot to play around with. I am now excited for this project instead of dreading it.

 

[Kelite]

Harloquin,
If you are fortunate enough to have a few LED profiles to use within the project, a low-cost full color PrintScenic foliage gobo or two would really add to the realism of your projection. Here's the marketing blab that explains the simple, cost effective process-

Color is now cost effective with PrintScenicTM gobos. Due to the multilayer printing process that Apollo has developed for PrintScenicTM gobos, color saturation is enhanced and black is true, opaque black not “transparent” printer black.
Apollo standards are available in PrintScenicTM glass or plastic. Over 3,000 standard patterns are available to cover your needs.

At $13.25 MSRP, full color foliage gobos have never cost less.
http://www.apollodesign.net/Products/Search.aspx?criteria=foliage

Approved LED profiles include:

• Altman PHX LED Profile Spot

• American DJ Gobo Projector LED

• American DJ X-Color LED Plus

• Chauvet Gobo Zoom LED 2.0

• Chauvet LFS-5

• Chauvet Ovation

• Chauvet Q-Spot 260 LED (Glass only)

• Darklight Gantom iQ

• Derksen PHOS 20

• Derksen PHOS Mini

• ETC Source Four LED

• ETC Source Four LED - Lustr+

• ETC Source Four LED - Tungsten

• ETC Source Four Mini

• Osram Kreios® G1 LED Image

• Robert Juliat TIBO 533

• ROSCO iPro (TM) (Plastic only)

• Selecon PL Profile 1 LED

• Spotlight miniProfile Zoom 50W LED

• Spotlight Profile Zoom 100W LED

• Times Square LED10P

• Times Square LED36P